Francis Mackenzie, 1st Baron Seaforth

Lieutenant-General Francis Humberston Mackenzie, 1st Baron Seaforth, (9 June 1754 – 11 January 1815) was a British politician, soldier, and botanist. He was Chief of the Highland Clan Mackenzie, as which he raised the renowned 78th (Highlanders) Regiment of Foot.

Early life Mackenzie was the second son of Major William Mackenzie (d. 12 March 1770), who was the son of the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, and the grandson of Kenneth Mackenzie, 4th Earl of Seaforth. When he was about twelve years of age, Francis contracted scarlet fever, which incurred the loss of his ability to hear and almost all of his ability to speak. As a consequence, he was known as MacCoinnich Bodhar (Deaf Mackenzie in Gaelic).

Political and military career

From 1784 to 1790, and again from 1794 to 1796, Seaforth was Member of Parliament for the County of Ross.

In 1787, he proposed raising a regiment on his own estates, with himself as commander. The government declined his patriotic offer but accepted his services in procuring recruits for the 74th and 75th. On 19 May, 1790, he renewed his offer, yet the government declined his services again. When war broke out in 1793, he offered for a third time, and a letter of service was granted in his favour dated 7 March, 1793, empowering him as Lieutenant-Colonel-Commandant to raise a Highland Battalion to be called the 78th (Highlanders) Regiment of Foot. In 1798, he was appointed Colonel of the Ross-shire Regiment of Militia.

Seaforth served as Governor of Barbados from 1800 to 1806. During his tenure he reformed slavery on the island, implemented a prohibition on killing slaves, and reduced official discrimination against free blacks. to a direct commission in the Royal Engineers, which Moody entered as a lieutenant in 1806. Seaforth attained the rank of lieutenant-general in 1808.

In 1796, Mackenzie gave £1,000 to Sir Thomas Lawrence to assist with Lawrence's financial difficulties. Lawrence later painted a full-length portrait of Seaforth's daughter, Mary.

Lord Seaforth commissioned Benjamin West's 1786 painting Alexander III of Scotland Rescued from the Fury of a Stag by the Intrepidity of Colin Fitzgerald.

Walter Scott said of him:

Seaforth nearly recovered entirely the use of his tongue, but during the last two years of his life, which he spent mourning the deaths of his four sons, he rarely spoke.

Family

In 1782, Mackenzie married Mary Proby, the daughter of The Very Rev Baptist Proby who had served as the 7th Dean of Lichfield, and of Mary Russel. Mary Proby was the niece of John Proby, 1st Baron Carysfort and the sister of Rev. Charles Proby.

Francis's four legitimate sons all predeceased him, as had been predicted by the Brahan Seer. His children were: William Frederick Mackenzie (died young) George Leveson Boucherat Mackenzie (died young) Hon. William Frederick Mackenzie (died 1814), MP for Ross-shire Hon. Francis John Mackenzie, midshipman, RN (died unmarried 1813) Hon. Mary Elizabeth Frederica Mackenzie, heiress to her father, (married first Admiral Sir Samuel Hood; married second Rt Hon James Alexander Stewart of Glasserton). Frances Catherine Mackenzie Caroline Elizabeth Mackenzie (accidentally killed unmarried) Charlotte Elizabeth Mackenzie (died unmarried) Augusta Anne Mackenzie (died unmarried in 1856) buried in Dean Cemetery Helen Anne Mackenzie (married Joshua Henry Mackenzie, Lord Mackenzie) (buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard)